Kenilworth castle where is it

These lakes — the Great Mere — were also a habitat for fish and wildfowl, which would have been caught to be cooked in the extensive early-modern castle kitchens. The Great Mere which surrounded Kenilworth once spanned a phenomenal size — it was more than half a mile long, and about m wide.

In , Kenilworth Castle was the site of one of the largest and most ferocious sieges in the history of England. From , King Henry II saw the castle had significant strategic potential, and ordered the control of the castle to be passed to him. Between Henry II and his son, King John, they lavished money on the castle, and built the ring of outer defence works which are still visible to this day.

In , Simon de Montfort was granted custody of Kenilworth Castle for the rest of his life. However savvy de Montfort may have been in securing the castle and strengthening its defences, he made a terrible mistake in by leading a group of barons in rebellion against the present king, Henry III. De Montfort enjoyed some early success — he managed to capture King Henry and also son Edward.

This effectively made de Montfort the caretaker king of England. But his aspirations were short-lived. Edward managed to escape from his captors, and lead a huge army into battle against de Montfort. As a result, de Montfort was killed in a bloody battle at Evesham in However, from onwards, some of his loyal followers barricaded themselves in Kenilworth Castle, in defiance of the victorious King. Those expensive defences were now being used against him.

The siege of Kenilworth Castle began in June and lasted a full six months, until December that year. Those defending the castle lived through quite shocking difficulty and squalor, but were successful in keeping out the attackers for an unheard of time.

The royal forces outside the castle struggled against the might of the huge trebuchet catapults, which flung huge rocks from inside the castle onto the defenders outside. Resultantly, the regal army had to scurry to London to procure equal machinery. The Royal forces returned with a selection of their own trebuchets — and these were truly quite phenomenal beasts.

These mighty machines were capable of flinging huge rocks, weighing up to kg, into the castle. Some of the rocks used back then have been discovered by archeologists, and can be seen today see below. The battle was inconclusive however and the Royalists withdrew their garrison with the vacuum quickly being filled by Parliament who held it until the end of the war. This did not save it from the post-war slighting imposed on so many other English castles; in the Great Tower and sections of the battlements were ordered to be partially dismantled.

Following the war the Gatehouse was converted into a comfortable lodging but the castle never regained its former status. Originally built to mitigate against the power of the Earls of Warwick, Kenilworth Castle saw more than its fair share of rebellions.

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